Cop accidentally shoots woman in leg, apologizes; she's jailed

SEATTLE -- A Seattle police officer accidentally shot a woman in the leg on Aurora Avenue in what the police crime blotter on Thursday described as "a chaotic series of events."

According to the Seattle Police Department, the incident began just before 11 p.m. Wednesday when a man called 911 from a motel near N. 120th Street and Aurora Avenue N. and said, "I think someone detonated an incendiary device."

As police rushed to the scene, one officer saw a 19-year-old woman punching another woman on the sidewalk. When one of the women took off, the officer jumped out of his car and chased after her, eventually catching up to her in a nearby parking lot. The woman refused to show her hands to prove she wasn't armed, the SPD said, so the officer drew his weapon. While drawing his gun, police said, the officer "unintentionally fired one shot, striking the woman in the leg."

The officer immediately radioed for medics "and offered his apologies to the woman for the very regrettable incident," the SPD blotter said.

She was taken for treatment to Harborview Medical Center, where officers ran her name and learned she was wanted in Snohomish County on several felony warrants. Snohomish County police asked that she be booked into jail for the warrants.

The officer who shot her is a 29-year-old who has been on the Seattle police force for about a year and a half. He has been placed on administrative leave.

Meanwhile, police determined the original report of an incendiary explosion was a false report made by a man believed to be suffering from mental health issues.